Like this:

Every Sunday evening my roommate and I have the same routine of gathering all our clothes for the week and making the trek to the laundry room. Being in the Townhouses, the walk from our door to the laundry room is anything but convenient. Add to the walk a large bag of clothes, a gallon of detergent and a pre-existing annoyance that we have to leave our room in the first place, our enthusiasm for the chore is never exceedingly high.

My freshman year, living in Ford, I took the necessity of walking down two flights of stairs with my laundry bag over my shoulder as sort of a rite of passage. I was a freshman, getting the full college experience. Sophomore year, I was fortunate enough to live in a cottage which had a washer and dryer in the house. It was the best thing ever. Honestly though, it probably ruined the next two years for me. Junior year I lived in Thomas Berry and again I had to endure the weekly climb to the fourth floor- which for the entire year was home to a giant spider at the entrance of the laundry room that no one ever had the nerve to kill.

Now , Townhouse residents aren’t even afforded the convenience of walking indoors to do their laundry. Instead, we must leave our homes and walk across the parking lot to reach the laundry room. To top it all off, from my experience in the past two weeks, once you get there, throwing your bag off your shoulder and setting down your detergent, you’re often faced with the realization that there are no open washers. The ones that appear to be open are taped with “DO NOT USE,” because some residents obviously have never had to do their laundry until now and don’t know how to properly close the front facing door, resulting in slamming and eventually breaking the door.

Now, in no way am I petitioning for individual laundry units to be placed in all of the townhouses. That’s obviously not feasible. It would cost far too much and if the treatment of the communal washers and dryers are any sort of forewarning to that of personal ones, some residents would not be able to properly use and maintain a washer and dryer. However, I am just stating an open complaint for our current laundry cycle dilemma.

College has taught me a lot of things. In the classroom I’ve learned skills and gained experience that will eventually aid me in succeeding in a future job. Outside of the classroom however, in the laundry room, I’ve learned many life lessons that I will carry with me forever. I’ve learned time management and what I can accomplish in the 28 minutes the washing machine locks to hold my dirty clothes and my own schedule hostage until the cycle is finished. I’ve learned the multi-tasking it takes to remove someone’s clothes from a machine while also watching the door, praying they won’t come in to see you holding their still wet clothes with a look of panic on your face.

I’ve learned the maturity and understanding needed to realize it’s your own fault your clothes have been sitting in a pile for two hours because you forgot about them. Most importantly though, I’ve learned to appreciate the small things in life, like having a washer and dryer in your own home.